Now that the government has finally woken up to its responsibility of giving some relief to the struggling Bhopal victims, and cleaning up the poison left behind, the big question is: will there be speedy action against Carbide/Dow or will we meander through another quarter century of court hearings?

Does it really matter? It does, because Carbide and Dow have one of the dirtiest records of damaging the environment, poisoning people, animals and plants, hoodwinking and dodging the law, all across the world. If India does not act against such serial offenders, then the message will be sent to all the world’s crooks – you can play fast and loose in India because there are no comebacks. So, here is a quick recap of the environmental record of Union Carbide and Dow Chemical (in two parts).

1955: At Carbide’s gas diffusion plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, about a million kilograms of mercury leaked into the ground, water and air. Almost half the workforce showed high levels of mercury in urine.

1980: U.S. Departments of Labor and Health & Human Services report high brain cancer rates at seven petrochemical plants including Carbide’s Texas City facility, where 18 workers had died of brain cancer. Carbide fined $550,000 for air pollution violations dating back to 1972 at its Yabucoa, Puerto Rico graphite electrode plant.

1987: Carbide agrees to pay $40 million to clean up its Uravan, Colorado uranium contamination, and to pay the state $2.8 million in legal costs. Carbide pays $408,500 to settle 556 health and safety regulations violations at its Institute and South Charleston, WV plants.

1989: Carbide, one of three defendants in an asbestos cancer lawsuit, settles for $900,000. EPA imposes penalty of $325,000 jointly against Union Carbide Corporation and Rhone-Poulenc Ag Company for water pollution from Institute, WV facility.

1991: Canadian government cancels registration and EPA issues warning against personal insect repellants containing ethylhexanediol (EHX) made by Carbide. Its subsidiary McGhan Nusil fined $384,000 by U.S. EPA for violations. Explosion at Carbide’s plant near Port Lavaca, Texas kills one and injures 26. Carbide fined $1.5 million and pays $3.2 million compensation. 380,000 gallons of chloroform spills into Guayanilla Bay at Ponce, Puerto Rico. EPA issues enforcement order to eleven companies, including Carbide, for clean up of Middlefield-Ellis-Whisman groundwater contamination site in California. Carbide fined $151,000 for 23 health and safety violations after chemical explosion involving asbestos.

1992: Study of cancer rates in the Kanawha Valley, WV by National Institutes for Chemical Studies (NICS), shows link between children’s health and their proximity to chemical plants emitting volatile organic compounds. Carbide and other companies pay $8.2 million to settle a suit by residents near the Brio Superfund site near Houston. EPA fines Carbide $170,150 for violations of law relating to disposal of hazardous wastes.

1993: EPA seeks fine of $194,550 for spillage of benzene, methane, ethylene and "refinery by-product gases" at Texas City. Carbide one of twenty corporations named in the suit of $1 billion for 100,000 victims of exposure to asbestos.

1994: EPA fines Carbide $320,000 for failure to perform regular leak detection testing, and maintaining records of boiler wastes such as mercury, lead, and beryllium at Institute, WV, and $75,000 for not reporting a leak of ethylene oxide. Carbide to pay $138 million over two years and former subsidiary McGhan $25 million over 25 years, in $4.7 billion settlement of Dow Corning’s silicone breast implant litigation.

In 1999, Union Carbide’s merger with Dow Chemical was initiated, to be completed in 2001. So, now we have a look at Dow, the world’s second largest chemical company (coming up in Part 2).

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Author

Subodh Varma is with the Times Insight Group, a small entity within the giant Times of India, tasked with digging deep and distilling the how, why and when of every happening thing. Having studied science in college and having worked for a few years as a scientist of sorts, helps. On the other hand, having been involved in social and political issues puts the science bit in perspective.

Subodh Varma is with the Times Insight Group, a small entity within the giant Times of India, tasked with digging deep and distilling the how, why and when . . .